North Texas man sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison for possessing, shipping and transporting child pornography

DALLAS — A north Texas man was sentenced on Thursday to 160 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release following his guilty plea on child pornography charges.

This sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña, Northern District of Texas. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

According to documents filed in the case, in March 2011, Gary Wayne Vitovsky, 53, of Ennis, Texas, used the Internet to post images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In June 2011, Vitovsky possessed a hard disk drive that contained visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Vitovsky pleaded guilty in October 2011 to a two-count indictment charging one count of shipping and receiving child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa J. Miller was in charge of the prosecution.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.